Azure’s flexibility can be a blessing or a budget nightmare. Without proper cost governance, businesses easily overspend on unused resources, oversized VMs, or the wrong pricing models.
In this article, we’ll explore 7 practical ways to optimize Azure costs without sacrificing performance.
1. Identify & Eliminate Wasted Resources
- Use Azure Cost Management + Advisor to detect unused VMs, idle storage, unattached disks, and zombie resources.
- Implement auto-shutdown for Dev/Test VMs and lifecycle policies for storage blobs.
2. Right-Size Your Resources
Monitor usage with Azure Monitor → resize based on actual CPU/memory needs (leaving headroom for bursts).
Use VM Insights to find underutilized VMs.
3. Use Azure Reservations for Predictable Workloads
- Reserve VMs or databases for 1–3 years to get up to 72% discount.
- Ideal for production workloads with steady demand.
4. Leverage Spot VMs for Non-Critical Jobs
Great for batch processing, CI/CD agents, and testing.
Costs up to 90% less, but can be evicted anytime.
5. Use Savings Plans for Compute
- Commit to a consistent spend per hour and save on VMs, App Services, and AKS nodes.
- More flexible than reservations.
6. Optimize PaaS Services
Use elastic pools for Azure SQL Databases.
Enable auto-pause/resume for serverless SQL.
Use Function Apps or Logic Apps for event-driven workloads.
7. Automate Scaling
Enable auto-scale for App Services, AKS, and VMSS to scale down during low demand.
Use Automation Accounts to stop non-critical VMs during off-hours.
CONCLUSION
Cloud cost optimization isn’t a one-time activity. It’s an ongoing process. Start by cleaning up waste, commit to the right pricing models, and automate everything you can.
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